mermaids

[Gertrudes]

Alright, so that makes it two of us not buying it then.

I was thinking about it last night and realized two things. First, that I couldn't shake the taste of cheap sensationalism the whole thing left in me. Secondly, that when there is a general consensus I tend to doubt my impressions, which has a pro and a con, a con when doubt is not balanced. I'm pretty bad at retaining details, usually the details will sort of merge themselves into a whole picture that will leave an impression in me. The problem with it is that when I'm trying to convey an impression I will barely have anything to back it up because I've forgotten the details, all I'm left with is a subjective impression. That happened yesterday when all I could remember was that damn pelvis.
A bit of a digression here, sorry!

not to mention that the likelihood of forensic expert looking like top model are pretty slim

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that. Indeed, a bit too pretty, but you never know.

the next thing I noticed was the disclaimer at the end of the film denouncing any link to institutions mentioned in the film, as well as saying that any similarity to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. When I watched it first time it was late and I was sleepy and didn't even notice this.

Didn't notice that either.

Now the question remains what was the agenda with this film, perhaps to discredit aquatic ape theory as ludicrous as it would be connected with this figment of imagination. Or perhaps there was no agenda at all and whole aim was to create intelligent amusement for the masses. I was amused that's for sure.

If that was to cause any stir in the aquatic ape theory, my bet would be on trying to give it credit rather then discrediting it. I find discrediting in this case a bit too elaborate, if that makes sense. In any case, I don't really know what they wanted to achieve with that.

 

[bngenoh]

Shish this just proves how easily anyone can be duped, even when I watched it for the first time I had impression that "the scientists" look and conduct themselves as actors, not to mention that the likelihood of forensic expert looking like top model are pretty slim. But I guess I wanted to believe, contrary to my favorite quote "I dont want to believe I want to know".
I watched it for second time today and apart from obviously acted "scientists", the next thing I noticed was the disclaimer at the end of the film denouncing any link to institutions mentioned in the film, as well as saying that any similarity to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. When I watched it first time it was late and I was sleepy and didn't even notice this. On the second viewing even the account of German fisherman from the Baltic sea looked staged.

Now the question remains what was the agenda with this film, perhaps to discredit aquatic ape theory as ludicrous as it would be connected with this figment of imagination. Or perhaps there was no agenda at all and whole aim was to create intelligent amusement for the masses. I was amused that's for sure.

I saw that too when I first watched it, but System 1 was already initiated and running full blast, so the implications were not able to be ascertained. Figures huh, it is a great lesson to me, and now I am wondering about those Egyptian Cave paintings, they put forth. It's easy to analyze in hindsight (hindsight bias) more difficult is to discern while in the moment, I am still learning and this was definitely a great lesson.

Programs were definitely running amuck, and Anart gave me just what I needed, you are AWESOME by the way A. ;) While going on the line of falsification of this whole thing, I found this: _http://timenolonger.wordpress.com/tag/brian-mccormick/

I haven't the foggiest idea what's up on the BBM.

 

[kitty125]

the whole show is a mockumentary with only a tiny bit of real evidence such as the bloop sound and historical markings.in a way it was showing a theory while (maybe) off handedly putting a spotlight on the weapon testing.

 

[Marctavius]

If you watch closely it also points out in the fine print at the beginning that it's a mockumentary.

 

[theos]

I just watched this very interesting low budget documentary on the history of mermaid myths. It discusses the history of the female breath-holding divers through history, mermaids similarities to legends of witches, matriarchy, the aquatic ape hypothesis, the ladies of the lake in the King Arthur legends and the destruction of sea peoples and their way of life by farmers.

Mermaids are a representation and the veneration of women who lived by the sea gathering food for their people, knew herbs and healing, spoke the truth (sword-bearing as in the ladies of the lake) and were persecuted and destroyed over the centuries by patriarchy, organized religion and agriculture. <---this is what I got out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-jOuLS0kKw&feature=related

 

[NewOrleans]

Bngenoh, I've very surprised by the ancient Egyptian wall paintings. Those I'd never seen before.

The mermaid representations are old. There's perhaps some very, very ancient recollection of seafaring races rather than half-fish creatures in all this, but garbled into an imaginary figure. But the mermaid figure survives in collective consciousness.

From Robert Graves comes this: Merry-maid or mermaid goes back to ancient Britain/Scotland/Ireland as the goddess Brigit - her symbol, the white swan - who later became Mary, Marian, Marianne ("Sea lamb") in disguise. The familiar representation of this figure was the woman with a round mirror, a golden comb and a fish-tail - expressing the love goddess rising from the sea. The myth arises in several forms in pre-Hellenic times: Atergatis, also being the Goddess Aphaea, Dictynna, Britomart, while in erotic pursuit changes into several animal forms, and finally escapes in fish form. She can be identified in temples as a Moon-Goddess with fish-tail statues. The Greeks later called her Aphrodite ("risen from sea foam"). And much later incorporated into early Christian Mary worship. Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" is iconic of Italian Renaissance paganism. Emperor Constantine put an end to Mary worship in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Africans, brought to the Americas as slaves, called her Yamaya and this figure still survives in Carribbean Voudou as the mermaid - Mother of the Sea (the unconscious).

 

[Alana]

This was posted on SOTT a few days ago:

Mermaids, Like Zombies, Not Real, Say Government Experts

Sorry everyone, mermaids can't actually be found under the sea.

The National Ocean Service has declared that the mythical creatures do not exist after Animal Planet aired a seemingly realistic TV show in May about the half-human, half-fish sea creatures.

"No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found," the service wrote in an article online.

The service decided to respond last week to inquiries from at least two confused viewers who watched the fictional show titled Mermaids: The Body Found and couldn't tell whether the creatures were real or not.

The statement, which describes mermaids' mythological origins, was written based on public knowledge because "mermaid science programs" do not exist, NOS spokesperson Carol Kavanagh told the BBC.

The rather unusual declaration comes on the heels of a similarly bizarre announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC announced last month that there are no such things as zombies, despite the sudden surge in real-world face-eating attacks.

In recent years, the CDC has jokingly published several "zombie apocalypse" warnings, which advised people to stock up on food and water in case of a freak zombine attack - advise that also applies to natural disasters.

But the agency felt it needed to take a firm stance on the issue in May when Rudy Eugene chewed off the face of a homeless man on the side of a busy causeway in Miami.

It is interesting that there are drawings from the Bronze age that depict mermaids (and centaurs!):

Carved from about 4000 B.C. up to the Bronze Age, the rock art shows animals, people, boats, hunting scenes -- even very early centaurs and mermaids. It was produced by generations of semi nomadic people, who lived more inland in winter to hunt elk, and then occupied areas closer to coasts and rivers to fish.

The aquatic ape hypothesis might explain the mermaid drawings (not so much the centaurs though...)

Were mermaids real? New theory suggests 'aquatic apes' might account for legends

Maybe it's the other way around. Life seems to have started in the sea and there's an old theory than man came out of the sea. The major evidence in support of this, as I remember it, is that our spines are weaker than they should be. Had we evolved on land we should be stronger. In the sea however, gravity doesn't affect our spines as much.

That's a possibility which could go hand in hand with the aquatic ape theory. Still, how would it explain the pelvis of a biped?

From Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape:

4 Horizontal in the water

Now, when a seal, or a sea otter, or a man, gets tired of gazing and swims away, the position changes. instead of being vertical in the water they are horizontal in the water. But one thing does not change, and that is the relationship between their spine and their hind limbs. While they are in the water, whether horizontal or vertical, the spine and the hind limbs are aligned in one straight line quite different from the 90-degree angle of a land dwelling quadruped.

Since a seal spends most of its life with its spine and hind limbs thus aligned, it is not surprising that something has happened to its pelvis. In a seal the pelvic girdle is more nearly parallel to the vertebral column than it is in terrestrial mammals. A similar shift can be observed in pelvis of Homo Sapiens, and in this case it is described as an adaptation to bipedalism. We may assume that it happened to also to whales and dolphins, but this would be harder to prove since in their case only the vestiges of the pelvic bones remain.

If this modification of the skeleton of man's ancestors-a preadaptation to bipedalism-took place in the water, it would not be unique; it would be a common and natural development. It would not be a precarious one either: being vertical in the water does not lead to instability and falling down.

If after a few million years of aquatic life-probably wading at first, and subsequently floating and swimming-the primate returned to the land, he would be already endowed with some psychological adaptations making the erect posture easier to adopt and maintain.

There is a parallel to this. One other creature habitually walks in the same posture as man, with its spine at right angles to the earth and its skull in a direct vertical line with its feet. That creature is the penguin. Its perpendicular stance is unlike that of any other bird, just as ours is unlike that of any other mammal. The reason could well be the same. The penguin's quasi-human gait, which often causes us to laugh, could be another example of convergent evolution.

I haven't watched the original documentary, but of what I understand it talks of the aquatic ape theory? And what makes it a mocumentary is that they claim sightings of mermaids (dead or alive) in our times? Is it trying to ridicule the aquatic ape theory?

 

[ishiki]

So I watched this show on discovery+ named: Mermaids the new evidence. Since I never watched the first show, I thought I ought to watch it, even if it were only to be able to voice my opinion on the matter. While reading this thread I thought this would information add to this thread, seeing as it didn't add any pictures.

In this show they found some old pictures taken before the great fire of New York in 1865, which took place two days before P. T. Barnums' exposition to which a ‘new’ mermaid was supposed to be presented. Here are two caps from the TV-show.


I see this Barnum guy more of conman trying to get money out of everyone by selling them a dream of rarity. So, I am far from convinced these pictures show a ‘real’ mermaid. That being said, if these pictures were real I would have to say that they look rather familiar to a grey alien description, with the additional tail. Which makes me wonder whether mermaids are an experiment gone wrong.

Sidenote: the fire conveniently destroyed the supposedly real evidence.